OXFORD, N.S. – Could Amherst police vehicles be some day patrolling the streets of Oxford?
Town council in the wild blueberry capital has agreed to accept a proposal from the Amherst Police Department to potentially police the community, located 35 kilometres away.
Oxford is presently policed by the RCMP. There are five officers in the detachment including a corporal supervisor and four officers.
“We were approached by Amherst asking if they could send us a proposal and we as a council had a discussion and decided that we would be interested in looking at their proposal,” Oxford Mayor Trish Stewart said. “It’s always good to shop around.”
Stewart said the town is in the midst of policing review. She said Oxford has no issues with the RCMP, but wants to look for the most affordable option for the community moving ahead.
Policing costs approximately a half-million-dollars annually, which the mayor said is a substantial chunk of the town’s $2.2-million budget.
“It’s a huge part of our budget,” he said. “It’s important for us to have a look so we’re going to do a little investigating.”
The mayor said the town has been asking the RCMP to look for ways to reduce its cost to Oxford. She said the town has the second highest per capita policing costs in Nova Scotia.
“We have no problem with the policing service being provided, but it’s a large ticket item and we have to make sure we are getting good value for our dollar.”
Amherst CAO Greg Herrett confirmed his town has been in communication with Oxford. He said one of the things that came out of Amherst’s policing review was to reach out to the Municipality of Cumberland and Oxford to see if there is any interest in Amherst providing policing services.
Oxford expressed interest in having a conversation.
“The reason for doing this is it might be a way to reduce our cost per officer and be able to offer a reduced cost per officer to either Oxford or the county,” Herrett said, adding it’s very preliminary at this point. “Right now it’s just a conversation. We have to get together and talk about levels of service and service expectations. Internally, we have to have a discussion with the police department and police commission about what the impacts could be.”
Herrett said Amherst is pleased to be able to have the conversation. Maybe nothing will come of it, the CAO said, but at least both communities can say they looked at policing costs.
